Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following statement today after Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ efforts to vote on both the Levin-Reed amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, as well as efforts to debate the Homeland Security Appropriations bill:

“Over the past 10 days, the American people saw stark differences between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans. They saw Senate Democrats work to rebuild our overburdened military, to change course in Iraq so that we may responsibly end this war and to pass the homeland security appropriations bill so that we may more effectively fight terrorism. And they saw Senate Republicans block each and every one of these efforts by throwing up procedural roadblocks that stopped the Senate from even considering these critical issues.

“As evidence continues to mount that the surge in Iraq is failing to make Iraq safer and Al Qaeda is growing stronger, Senate Republicans are defying the will of a bipartisan majority of Congress and a vast majority of the American people in order to protect the President. But this issue is not going away. Democrats will not stop until Republicans drop their obstruction and allow an up-or-down vote on the most important issues facing the country. We remain committed to sending the President binding legislation that provides a real change of course in Iraq.”